


love all around (but i never heard it singing)

by lco123



Category: Teenage Bounty Hunters (TV)
Genre: F/F, Valentine's Day Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-15
Updated: 2021-02-15
Packaged: 2021-03-16 05:53:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,814
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29448837
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lco123/pseuds/lco123
Summary: Truthfully, Sterling has always been April’s Valentine.
Relationships: April Stevens/Sterling Wesley
Comments: 10
Kudos: 121





	love all around (but i never heard it singing)

**Author's Note:**

> Was not planning on writing this but it came to me in a flash. Definitely a little hasty, but wanted to get it out today!
> 
> Happy Valentine's Day!

“Sterl,” Blair groans, voice heavy with exasperation. “Why didn’t you just buy pre-made valentines like me?”

“I already told you,” Sterling replies, tongue poking through her teeth as she focuses on cutting another bundle of paper hearts. “Because Mom said—“

“Oh, don’t ‘Mom said’ me!”

“Okay, fine! Then _I_ say, because it’s nicer! More personal.”

Blair sighs dramatically, flopping backwards onto Sterling’s bed. “What does that even mean?”

Sterling doesn’t answer. All of Blair’s questions have started to mess with her concentration, and the latest round of hearts is looking a little lopsided. “I don’t know why you care. You already finished yours.”

“Yeah, because I just had to write the name of every kid in our class, then mine. It took, like, no time at all. But now I’m bored because you’re taking _forever_.”

“Well, you could help me!” Sterling replies brightly.

“Wouldn’t that be cheating?”

Sterling considers that before shaking her head. “Not if I tell you what to write.”

“Ugh, fine. But only because then we can get to watching _The Parent Trap_ faster. I’m tired of grownups asking if we’ve seen it.”

“I know, right? Like, just because we’re twins doesn’t mean we know every movie with twins in it.”

“Exactly.”

Blair settles up at the desk next to Sterling, eyes scanning through the list of their fourth grade classmates, organized in alphabetical order by last name. “You’re actually gonna write a special message to each person?”

“Well, yeah,” Sterling says like it’s obvious. “I mean, I know all of them, so why not?”

“Even Jeffrey Abrams? He’s such a butthead!”

“Don’t call him that!”

“He threw a dodgeball _right_ at my head during P.E. yesterday!”

Sterling scowls, thinking about how best to remedy the situation. “Just write ‘ _Happy Valentine’s Day, Jeffrey. May your heart grow bigger with Jesus’s love.’_ ”

Blair grins, clearly impressed. “That’s so mean but in, like, a sneaky way. I love it.”

Sterling smiles back, caught between feeling bad about the backhanded message and a little proud of herself for impressing Blair. “Make sure to use nice handwriting,” she instructs, even though, infuriatingly, Blair has always had naturally better penmanship than her.

Despite Blair’s complaining, their system works pretty well. Sterling cuts and glues together the paper just how she wants them, then Blair calls out the name of whichever classmate they’re on and writes down Sterling’s personal message.

Sterling tries to find one nice thing to say about each of her classmates, which is easier with some people than others. She blushes a little when she gets to Luke, because she can’t help it; she _knows_ he has a little bit of a crush on her and she thinks she could probably have a crush on him, too. He’s easily the nicest boy in their class. Blair teases her gently about it, but then dutifully writes down Sterling’s message praising his manners.

They’re moving through the list faster than expected, so it’s genuinely a surprise when Blair calls out, “Alright, April?”

“I’ll do that one!” Sterling replies quickly. Too quickly, maybe, as evidenced by the weird look Blair gives her. “I just mean, she recognizes my handwriting,” Sterling adds. “So, like, she’d know I didn’t write it.”

Blair shrugs. “Whatever, weirdo. Well, she’s the last person on the list, so go for it. I’m starting the movie in five minutes whether you’re done or not.”

Blair swans back over to her bed and Sterling stares down at the blank heart in front of her. She doesn’t know what to write, which is ridiculous: Sterling can think of so many nice things to say about April.

Like how smart she is, smarter even than Sterling, already at an eighth grade reading level.

Or how she knows the Bible better than anyone in Sunday school.

Or how she’s funny, in a really surprising way, little comments slipping out of her mouth that make Sterling laugh way too loud in class most days.

Or how she’s got such a pretty singing voice, higher and more lilting than Sterling would expect. Sterling would never tell April this, but sometimes when they’re listening to Taylor Swift and April starts singing along, Sterling will actually try to tune out Taylor’s voice and just focus on April.

Or how her hair is always so shiny and sometimes when they have sleepovers she lets Sterling braid it and it always feels so soft and silky between Sterling’s fingers.

Sterling chews her lip, trying to narrow the nice thing down to just one. It suddenly seems impossible, way too giant a task. How could Sterling ever fit the hugeness of the way April makes her feel onto this little piece of paper?

Finally she settles on:

_"Happy Valentine’s Day, April. You’re my best friend (other than Blair) and I love you._

_Love, Sterling"_

Instead of putting the card in the large valentine envelope that hangs on the edge of April’s desk—their class made the envelopes out of red construction paper last Friday, and April’s is, of course, the tidiest of them all—Sterling hand-delivers it to her personally the next morning a few minutes before the bell rings.

April’s face blooms into a smile, and for a second Sterling wants to go back in time and bop herself on the head (but in, like, a gentle way) for not adding something about that smile, because it’s definitely Sterling’s favorite.

But then April looks up at her and says, “Thank you, Sterling,” in that really soft voice that she doesn’t use very often, and Sterling knows she made the right choice.

\---

Sterling swears the rows and rows of cards are mocking her.

They’re all too cutesy, or too cheesy, or downright gross, making some weird sex joke about old people still getting it on, or whatever. Sterling is really happy for all the grandparents still having sex after years of marriage, but she doesn’t really need to think about it while she’s in the middle of a supermarket, two days before Valentine’s Day.

Truth be told, she’s feeling a little resentful. It’s just that Sterling sort of figured that after five years together, Valentine’s Day didn’t need to be such a _thing_ with her and Luke. She kind of thought they’d just go to the movies or something and that would be that.

But yesterday Luke made it sound like he has some grand romantic plan, and now Sterling is scrambling to put together something vaguely romantic on her end, and the whole situation has just kind of put her in a mood. She loves Luke, so much, but sometimes she wishes they were more on the same page about certain things, without her having to nudge him in a specific direction or him making plans without consulting her.

She’s just about to throw in the towel and go with a card that says “ _Yoda One for Me_ ” with a picture of Yoda on the front, since she knows Luke loves _Star Wars_ , when a familiar voice says from beside her, “Tragic, isn’t it?”

Sterling’s belly tightens, like she’s bracing herself for the swoop of a rollercoaster. “What’s tragic?” she asks mildly, turning to April.

April, who’s barely willingly spoken to Sterling in years, at this point. Who, when she does speak to Sterling, seems to relish in tearing Sterling down. Or trying to; Sterling’s gotten pretty good at tuning her out since they started high school.

“With every combination of words available in the English language, the best they could come up with was ‘ _Donut Forget I Love You_ ,’” April replies, pointing to a card with that phrase superimposed over a drawing of a chocolate donut. “Shakespeare would weep.”

Sterling laughs, she can’t help it. April is right, but she’s also so dramatic in that way that Sterling has missed, when the drama isn’t being directed at her.

To her surprise, April laughs a little, too. Her genuine laugh, not her mean one. Sterling misses that, too.

“Hey!” Sterling says brightly, feeling a rush of sudden nostalgia and closeness. “You’re a _Star Wars_ fan, right?” She says it as casually as she can, like she hasn’t spent hours of her life sleepily listening to April monologue about _Star Wars_ in the late hours of a sleepover. “What do you think of this for Luke?”

Sterling turns the card in her hand around so April can see, and something in April’s expression darkens. “I think a card that cliché would be grounds to break up under most circumstances, but Luke is so dense, I fear you might have to explain the pun to him.”

Sterling sighs, the good feeling in her chest instantly evaporating. She wishes she didn’t still cling to this wild hope that maybe things could get back to normal now between her and April, wishes it didn’t still hurt so much every time another little piece of that hope is extinguished.

“What are you even doing over here?” Sterling snaps. “It’s not like you have anyone to give a valentine to.”

The second the words leave her mouth Sterling regrets them, but April, impressively, doesn’t flinch. “Clearly, I’m missing out,” she announces before flouncing off.

Eight months later, when everything has shifted between the two of them once again, but this time in a much more pleasurable direction, they’re sitting in the back of the Volt, sharing memories in between make outs.

There’s something about reminiscing about their relationship with the added context of her newly discovered attraction to April that gives Sterling a little thrill. It feels like rewatching a horror movie for a second time and adding up clues to the killer’s identity that were hiding in plain sight all along.

April isn’t willing to give a lot of specifics about when and how she realized that she liked Sterling, but Sterling is enjoying finding the places where she can push a little, the spots were April can’t help but give.

“So, last Valentine’s Day,” Sterling says with what she knows is an annoying smile. “Were you totally jealous that I gave Luke a _Star Wars_ card?”

April rolls her eyes, but it’s undercut by the gentle—and frankly, totally distracting—way she keeps running her fingers along the inside of Sterling’s arm. “Oh, yes. I was just _dying_ for you to give me a scrap of overpriced paper with the laziest _Star Wars_ pun known to man printed on it.”

Sterling shifts in her seat so she can press a kiss to the corner of April’s mouth, utterly unbothered by the sarcasm. “What _were_ you doing looking at the cards? You never told me that day.”

April looks down at their intertwined hands and when she looks back up her eyes are shining a bit. “It’s stupid,” she says quietly.

“I’m sure that isn’t true.”

April sighs before murmuring, “I used to buy my mom a Valentine’s Day card and say it was from my dad. He always forgot, and then she’d get upset, and then _he’d_ get upset, so at a certain point doing that just seemed…easier.”

Sterling could honestly cry hearing that, but she doesn’t want April to have to be the one comforting her, so instead she squeezes her hand tighter and says, “I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine.”

“No, it’s not, but you know that. God, you were trying to do this nice thing and I was such a bitch to you.”

“Well, to be fair,” April replies with a small smile. “I was a bitch first.”

“Well, we’re done with that now,” Sterling declares. “I mean, when it’s just us in private. Right?”

“Right.”

“Promise?”

April hesitates for just a second before nodding. “I promise, Sterling.”

And then a week later everything falls apart, and Sterling has to cry about the fact that yet another promise in her life has been broken.

\---

“So,” Blair says on the screen as she slips in a pair of earrings. “What are your plans for tonight?”

“Um…you’re looking at them?” Sterling replies, holding a bag of discount heart-shaped chocolates up so Blair can see them.

“Seriously? That’s such a bummer! You should be out sowing your wild oats!”

Sterling grimaces. “That’s a gross expression. Plus, do girls have oats to sow?”

“Oh, my oats are getting sowed all over the place, baby!”

“Okay, you definitely aren’t using that right. Besides, it’s dumping buckets of snow here and I’m technically still mourning a breakup.”

Blair shakes her head, disbelieving. “You know, you only bring up said breakup up when you want an excuse to get out of doing something.”

“I do not!”

“You so do. Truth time: are you even still really sad about Michelle?”

Sterling pauses—not because she doesn’t know the answer, but because she doesn’t want to give Blair the satisfaction—before shaking her head. “No, not really.”

“Then go have some fun!” Blair exclaims. “Have a hot, V-Day one-night-stand!”

“Sorry to disappoint. But me and these chocolates and Reese Witherspoon are going to have a charming night in.”

Blair offers one more frustrated sigh before conceding, “Fine. But only because you know I can’t argue with the majesty of _Legally Blonde_.”

“Sow those oats for me, Blair. Have fun and don’t get too drunk!”

“I can agree to the former but make no guarantees about the latter!” Blair smirks, finger already hovering over the End Call button as she adds, “Say hi to April for me.”

Sterling is still sputtering as the call ends, more annoyed than she should be that Blair hung up before Sterling could inform her that she does not, in fact, have plans with April. It’s a ridiculous thing for Blair to even suggest, because it’s Valentine’s Day, and April has a girlfriend.

She and Sterling are friends now. Specifically, intentionally, determinedly just friends. For the first time, really, in years. They’re both in New York now—Sterling at NYU and April at Columbia—so they see each other most weekends, picking different parts of their new city to explore and trying not to stick out like two country girls as they do it. The city is equal parts scary and exciting to Sterling, bigger, in so many ways, than back home, but it’s hard to feel too anxious when April is by her side, taking every new thing in with a slightly more subtle but equally awe-struck expression.

Usually April’s girlfriend doesn’t come along, which Sterling understands; Darcy grew up here, so the wonder of New York has long since worn off. Michelle, back when she and Sterling were dating, joined them once or twice but eventually told Sterling that she felt a little like a third wheel.

“You two just…have a vibe together,” Michelle had said at the time. “It’s a little intense.” And Sterling tried to ignore the way that comment made her stomach flip.

It got more complicated when Michelle asked Sterling to explain her history with April in a tone that bordered on jealous. Sterling had taken a long time to answer, because, well, it’s a long story, but she must have smiled too big when she got to the part about April forgiving her and finally talking to her the first summer after college, followed by their slightly awkward but mostly joyous flight back to New York together, because Michelle got kind of weird about April after that.

Then a month later they were broken up, and Sterling knows she should probably feel sad that it’s her first Valentine’s Day since said breakup, but mostly she just feels quiet and content and maybe a little bit bummed that she won’t see April this weekend.

She’s just about to settle in with _Legally Blonde_ when April herself starts calling over FaceTime. As soon as Sterling answers the call she can tell April has been crying.

“What’s wrong?” Sterling asks immediately.

“Darcy broke up with me,” April replies, voice rough with tears.

“On Valentine’s Day?!”

“She said she didn’t want to pretend to be in love with me anymore.”

Sterling inhales sharply. She could kill Darcy. “Who says that to someone?”

April sniffs, twisting her fingers together. “She also said she didn’t want me to pretend to be in love with her.”

“Well, were you?” Sterling asks before she can stop herself, belatedly realizing that that is absolutely the wrong question to ask.

April’s eyebrows shoot up, the surprise halting her tears for a moment. “I—I mean, no, I wasn’t, but I didn’t think she could tell that.”

And it’s bad, it’s so, so, so bad, but something close to warmth curls in Sterling’s belly, hearing that. She can’t help but wonder whether her name was mentioned during the breakup as many times as April’s name was mentioned during hers.

“You should come over,” she suggests, working very hard to sound like a supportive, super platonic friend rather someone who is, definitely, April’s friend, but would also very much be into going down on her.

“Sterl…” April says softly. Sterling can tell she wants to say yes.

“C’mon, we’ll order pizza and eat chocolate and it’ll be great!”

An hour and a half later, April is curled up in the corner of Sterling’s couch, the bag of candy sitting between them. April didn’t really feel like talking when she got here, so Sterling suggested she just put on _Legally Blonde_ and April agreed.

“This movie gets a lot wrong about the legal system,” April remarks.

“Yeah, but it’s so fun!” Sterling argues. “Also, I’ve always thought there are total gay vibes between Reese and Selma Blair.”

April’s mouth tugs up at the corner. “Truthfully, I was just thinking that.”

Sterling grins, she can’t help it. She hates that April is hurting and is pretty sure she’d start shouting if she ever ran into Darcy on the street, but she’s not going to pretend that a part of her isn’t delighted to be spending the evening with April here on her couch.

“Happy Valentine’s Day, Ster,” April mumbles sleepily before she drifts off. “’M glad I’m here.”

\---

Sterling feels a little bit ridiculous, considering that she is a twenty-four year old woman currently lugging just about every conceivable cliché Valentine’s Day gift item through the streets of New York, but she really can’t be bothered to care. She is in love, and she wants April to know it.

Of course, April _knows_ it. They’ve been together for close to a year at this point, and literally the thing that got them together was Sterling breathlessly announcing that she was in love with April, and then April thankfully, _blessedly_ saying it back. They’re practically living together in April’s apartment, and their life together has started to feel like a routine, rather than a dream Sterling is terrified of waking up from. Their parents know about them, and Blair gives Sterling endless shit about how whipped she is, and Sterling is pretty sure April is going to officially ask her to move in pretty soon.

So, they’re very much together, and very much in love, but this is technically their first Valentine’s Day as a couple, and Sterling wants it to be special.

She arranged her day so she could be back at April’s apartment about an hour before April, and she quickly busies herself with getting everything ready. Roses in a vase, chocolates on the counter, a giant stuffed teddybear holding a red heart on April’s couch, and a homemade card—with three colors of construction paper and a few doilies, because anything less felt lazy—on the coffee table. Sterling shimmies out of her work clothes and into the matching lingerie set she just bought, pulling a silky robe on overtop.

Champagne is in the fridge, even though neither of them really like it, but it seems like the thing grown up people in love drink on this holiday. And Sterling’s already arranged for April’s favorite meal to be delivered later tonight.

Sterling takes a step back and surveys her work. It all suddenly looks like a lot. Too much, maybe, in April’s carefully curated space. The bright colors seem to clash with April’s more muted, mature decorating style.

But before Sterling can worry about whether she’s gone overboard, she hears April’s key in the lock. She leans herself against the counter, trying to look sexy but probably just looking overly eager.

April walks in with her head down, still absorbed in something on her phone. “Motherfucker,” she mutters, and Sterling frowns, straightening her posture.

“What’s wrong?” she chirps.

“Oh, the ADA is being a real asshole about that case I told you—” She finally looks up from her phone, scowl lifting as she takes in Sterling’s appearance. “Wow, you look nice.”

Sterling smiles, doing a little spin. “Happy Valentine’s Day.”

April doesn’t say anything, doesn’t even set her phone down, as her gaze sweeps across the apartment. Sterling watches as she takes it all in: the bear, the flowers, the chocolate, before settling back on Sterling.

“You did this for me?”

Sterling can’t not roll her eyes as she walks over toward April, gently tugging her phone out of her hand and helping slip off her coat. “Well, duh.”

“I really should have anticipated that you would go all out,” April comments. “And yet somehow, I didn’t expect all of this.”

Sterling runs her thumb along April’s knuckles. She thinks about what a big deal Luke used to make about the holiday, in a way that kind of annoyed Sterling. “Honestly, I always thought Valentine’s Day was kind of silly.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. But this year, I don’t know. I just really feel like we have a reason to celebrate.”

April smiles in that gentle way that still makes Sterling go a little breathless. “I can get on board with that.”

Sterling walks over to the coffee table, retrieving her card. She had a whole plan about pouring them champagne and maybe having sex before they even got to the presents, but for some reason right now she really wants April to look at her card.

“ _As Shakespeare once said,_ ” April reads aloud, “ _Donut forget I love you_.” She lets out a laugh before looking up at Sterling quizzically. “You remember that?”

“Of course I do.”

April tugs her closer by the belt of her robe, which kind of unties it since the garment is more built for sex appeal than warmth, but that’s absolutely okay because the look April gives Sterling’s mostly naked body is downright sinful.

“I love you,” April whispers against her mouth, and her voice is somehow so sexy and so sweet all at the same time. “And I love your valentine.” She kisses Sterling deeply, before pulling back with a smile. “So, will you be mine?”

Sterling giggles, delighted by the corniness of the question, and wraps her arms tightly around April’s neck. “My love, I always have been.”


End file.
